Illegal Immigrants’ Tab for Emergency Care: $61 Million

A total of $61 million in state and federal money was spent last year in Orange County on emergency health care for illegal immigrants, according to a state report released Tuesday by Gov. Pete Wilson’s Health and Welfare Secretary.

Although Proposition 187, the anti-illegal immigration measure on next Tuesday’s ballot, specifically excludes emergency health care, the release of the report drew criticism from opponents of the initiative who said it was intended to inflame anti-illegal immigrant passions one week before the election.

Orange County ranked second highest among California’s major urban counties in the amount of state and federal funds spent on emergency health care for illegal immigrants, according to the report.

The report lists the 10 counties that account for nearly 70% of the $800 million in government funds used for emergency health care for illegal immigrants in 1993.

At the top of the list was Los Angeles County, which last year spent $340.8 million in emergency health care for illegal immigrants, followed by Orange County, which spent $61 million.

Proposition 187--which has been strongly endorsed by Wilson--would deny non-emergency health care, education and other welfare benefits to illegal immigrants. Emergency services, which account for the costs highlighted in the report, still would be provided if the proposition passes.

The state report also said that another $7.3 million was spent in Orange County in 1993 for prenatal health care. The average monthly caseload for emergency and prenatal health care in Orange County totaled 26,907 cases, according to the report.

“At a time when the state has been forced to reduce or freeze spending on programs for the most vulnerable Californians, it is wrong that we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars for illegal immigrants living in 10 California counties,” said a statement released by Sandra R. Smoley, Wilson’s health and welfare secretary.

But the report--and its release a week before the election--was criticized by John Palacio, the Orange County head of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

“The governor is using the government agencies to assist him in his political campaign to polarize voters about undocumented immigrants,” Palacio said. “What he’s not telling you is that there’s no system in place that can correctly determine what the costs are in terms of serving undocumented immigrants.”

H.D. Palmer, a Wilson campaign spokesman disagreed, saying the report is “not a political issue, it’s more of a policy issue.”